Perestroika!

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The Raucous Rebellion in Political Science

Edited by Kristen Renwick Monroe

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An examination of the movement that has turned the discipline of political science upside down

This superb volume describes the events and ramifications of a revolt within the political science discipline that began in 2000 with a disgruntled e-mail message signed by one “Mr. Perestroika.” The message went to seventeen recipients who quickly forwarded it to others, and soon the Perestroika revolt became a major movement calling for change in the American political science community.


What is the Perestroika movement? Why did it occur? What has it accomplished? What remains to be done? Most important, what does it tell us about the nature of political science, about methodological pluralism and diversity, about the process of publishing scholarly work, and about graduate education in the field? The contributors to the book—thoughtful political scientists who offer a variety of perspectives—set the Perestroika movement in historical and comparative contexts. They address many topics related to heart of the debate—a desire for tolerance of methodological diversity—and assess the changes that have come in the wake of Perestroika. For political scientists and their graduate students, and for those interested in the history or sociology of social sciences, this volume is essential reading.

Kristen Renwick Monroe is professor of political science and philosophy, University of California at Irvine. She is the author or editor of eight previous books.

"This fascinating, provocative assemblage of essays on the origins, scope, meaning, limitations, and consequences of the Perestroika movement reveals the discipline as a dynamic, restless, and contested search for varied ways of understanding and giving meaning to political life. A major contribution to the literature on the history of the discipline." —David Easton, University of California, Irvine  
 
"A fascinating and often provocative assemblage of essays on the origins, scope, meaning, limitations and consequences of the Perestroika movement [put in the context of the transformations in political science, in the last 50 years, from behavioralism, post-behavioralism and rational modeling].  The book incidentally reveals the discipline as a dynamic, restless and contested search for varied ways of understanding and giving meaning to political life across time and space.  And not so incidentally it stands as a major contribution to the growing literature on the history of the discipline."—David Easton, University of California, Irvine  
  

"Every now and then American political science has an uprising. Questions are asked, emperors are declothed, bastions are stormed or at least infiltrated. Here is a smart, thought-provoking, and comprehensive guide to the 'Perestroika' insurgency of recent years."—David R. Mayhew, Sterling Professor of Political Science, Yale University

 

"How could one injudicious e-mail stimulate political scientists to think hard about our discipline? Reading this important book answers that question and gives the reader an excellent overview of post-Perestroika political science by major figures in the field."—Elinor Ostrom, author of Understanding Institutional Diversity 

“Don’t practice political science without having digested Perestroika! Between these two covers, Kristen Monroe has assembled a comprehensive and astute account of the insurgency in the discipline and out, for the foreseeable future.”—James C. Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science and Anthropology, Yale University

“An indispensable guide to Perestroika—the jumbled, raucous, liberating revolution in political science. This is the best summary of the discipline—its hopes and aspirations, rebels and counterrevolutionaries—that I’ve read in a very long time.”—James Morone, author of Hellfire Nation and The Democratic Wish

ISBN: 9780300099812
Publication Date: September 30, 2005
608 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
25 tables + figures